The Final Destination: BD Review
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Page 1 of 3 Warner / 2009 / 128 Minutes / Rated R / Street Date: January 5, 2010
My first foray into the Final Destination films came late in 2002. Some friends and I received one of those mystery movie invites. It usually means a big film, but we didn’t know what we were getting into. Once in the theater we found out we were about to see Final Destination 2. I hadn’t even seen the first one at this point, so I was kinda bummed. After a friend explained the premise of the first I was ready to experience what ended up being a hilariously bloody good time from the first moment of that amazing car crash.
THE Final Destination, also directed by David R. Ellis (FD2, Snakes on a Plane, Cellular) is the fourth in the series now. I thought it was time to put it to rest after the disappointing third film, but on it goes. We shall see if this is indeed “The” Final Destination.
How do I compliment and insult a turning point in this film even though it may be a spoiler. In all of these Final Destination films there’s a point where the audience is expected to possibly think it’s finally over and some of our heros have survived, but then it turns out not to be over. In this film it seemed like that moment was an hour in, but the film can’t be only an hour, so we know it’s not over. At the same time the ominous music is continuing to tell us it’s not over, so the movie had me wondering if it wanted me to think it was over or not. That being said there’s a funny reveal about an hour in as to how one character tries to break the chain of deaths.
This brings up another point. How is it these people after thinking their death is imminent can so easily be convinced that it’s all over and their salvation is at hand. But all of this honestly doesn’t mean a whole lot. Neither does the occasionally cheesy dialogue or sometimes less than stellar acting.
What is important in these films is if the deaths are fantastically impressive enough and despite the foregone knowledge of how these films work, do they still manage to surprise? The one other thing that can take me out of a horror movie even more than cheesy dialogue or bad acting is if the characters act stupidly. That’s where this film failed me, characters act stupid and by the time they end up dying I frankly don’t care. Then at that point if/when they don’t die I’m more disappointed than relieved.
Writing this as I watched the film that’s where I thought I might leave this review. Then the end of the film arrived and I thought I saw an amazingly fantastic ending coming up, but then it just ended. If you haven’t seen the film I’ll leave it a surprise whether it ended with a splat or not. Was this film the best of the series? Not even close. Is it the worst? Possibly, but the third was a pretty big let down I thought from the second. I will say this, the film will sit on my shelf and I may put it in again sometime in the future. When I decide I want to see a scene from Chuck Palaniuk’s “Guts” played out on film. I hope he got some royalties.
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